2 AM
by LucyLuna
Summary: When Gwen gets herself in a bind while celebrating her birthday, she calls Aaron. Part eleven of My Memories Came Back in the Form of Someone Else series. One-shot.


_2 AM_

* * *

"_Hello?_" a groggy voice greeted.

Gwen released the breath she was holding and clumsily placed her hand over her heart. "Oh thank God," she said while a group of boisterous young men walked past her, laughing and yelling at each other.

"_Who is this?_" the more awake and now clearly annoyed voice demanded

She crinkled her nose. "Who is—" Gwen started only to stop as realization dawned in her foggy mind. Of course he didn't know who she was. While Gwen had been given Aaron's number, she doubted he'd been given hers. "Sorry," she began again, "this is Gwen. The girl who babysits your nephew?"

There was silence on the other side of the line for a moment. In a less irritated, but now suspicious tone, Aaron asked, "_How do you have my number? And why are you calling at fucking two in the morning?_"

Gwen swayed where she stood out on one of New Yorks many streets and squinted her eyes to try and read a neon sign hanging in a bar's window across the street. She thought it was a Spanish word, maybe the bar's name? But she wasn't sure.

"_Are you still there?_" asked Aaron and reminding her she had questions to answer.

"Um… yeah," she replied, doubling her efforts to focus on the conversation instead of the many interesting sights going on around her. "Rio gave it to me in her list of emergency numbers when I started babysitting Miles."

There was a sigh on the other end of the line. "_Damnit, Rio…_" he grumbled. "_What are you calling for, girl?_" he asked next, almost sounding concerned now.

Gwen couldn't help herself, she began to giggle into her hands and stumbled back into the wall behind her with a light thump. "I'm I dunno where!" she told him. "And I'm a liiitle too hammered to call my policeman dad."

There was silence.

"Aaron?" she murmured, a frown tugging at her lips. Had he hung up? Oh no. Who else could she call for a ride? _ Flash Thompson_? He would come, but she knew he'd blackmail her into a date or something equally unpleasant in exchange.

"_Shit, kid. Are you alone?_" he asked all of a sudden, pulling Gwen out of her thoughts and relieving her concerns.

"Yeah," she answered. Giggling some more she pushed off from the wall she was leaned against and turned herself in a circle. "I dunno where MJ and everybody went!"

"_Are you outside? Do you gotta street sign you could read to me? If you're not too far, I can get to you in no time._"

"Ummm," Gwen said, drawing out the word as she stumbled down the street (thankfully, she only bumped into one woman when her heel got caught in a crack in the sidewalk). "Lemme just go this way…" finally reaching a corner, she looked up to see the familiar green-blue of street signs and rattled off the names on them to Aaron.

"_Hang there,_" he ordered as soon as he finished. There was rustling on his side of the line, presumably from him gathering clothes to put on. His tone was firm as he said, "_Don't do shit, don't talk to anybody but your friends if they find you, got me?_"

Gwen wrapped herself around the street sign and grinned. "Uh-huh. Bye Aaron!" she replied before closing her flip phone with a satisfying snap. As she waited, quietly humming to herself as people walked around her, occasionally eyeing her with varying degrees of interest, Gwen began to wonder if she should have asked how Aaron was going to get her. Was he bringing a taxi? Did he have a car? How far away did he live? Was he just going to walk down and guide her somewhere else?

Her questions were soon answered when a motorcyclist pulled up next to her. She smiled when he pulled off his indigo helmet and revealed himself to be Aaron. Gwen didn't know why, but she was delighted to see that this was one of the number of ways Aaron and the Prowler intersected. "Whoa, you have a normal bike too?"

His features twisted with confusion."Normal—" he stopped and narrowed his gaze, lips pulling down into a severe frown. "Girl, you been smokin' shit too tonight or what?"

She pouted."No! The place MJ knows that wouldn't check our IDs only does drinks!"

Aaron rolled his eyes and shoved his helmet at her. Gwen fumbled with it, but eventually got a good grip on it. When she did, she looked at him, expectant. He sighed and pointed at it. "Put on my helmet and hop on."

Gwen bit her lip. She wasn't sure riding around on a motorcycle was too good of an idea right now. She was unsteady and things in the corner of her eyes were out of focus. "I dunno, It might make me sick to ride that…"

He pursed his lips before taking the helmet from her hands and then pushing it down over her head. "I'll go the speed limit with you on it," he explained as he picked her up and swung her onto his bike while she was entirely too stunned to react. "You'll be fine."

Any other time, she would have thrown a fit about being manhandled. Right now, though, she was just glad Aaron hadn't decided she was too much trouble and ditched her. Gwen adjusted herself as Aaron got on the motorcycle and leaned forward to wrap an arm around his middle. She'd been close to guys before, Hell, she'd kissed one at the bar tonight, but this felt different. Aaron's middle was hard with muscle and she could feel how strong he was as he pushed the bike's kickstand up and began the bike. It was a good reminder that if she weren't Spider-Woman, she wouldn't stand a chance against him in a fight.

Gwen rested her helmeted-head on his back and told him, "I'm not supposed to be home tonight."

He snorted. "I fucking bet," he muttered. Then, kinder, he offered, "You can crash on my couch."

She gaped beneath the helmet even as her chest burst with relief. "Really? You're so nice!" she sighed and said aloud, though, perhaps it would have been smarter to keep it to her head, "Why can't you always be like this?"

He turned to look over his shoulder at her, bewildered. "What the Hell is that supposed to mean?"

Gwen ignored the question, realizing she had said far too much. Shifting her attention to the street, she remarked, "You know, I thought going drinking for my birthday would be a lot more fun than this."

Aaron huffed out a breath and started his motorcycle. As he pulled onto the street, he replied, snide, "Oh, so that's why you're being an idiot."

"I'm not an idiot!" she decried, tightening her grip on him as he maneuvered around a car. Pressing her head to his back to stem the abrupt wave of nausea, she breathed in and out before yelling over the noise, "It was MJ's idea. She said I needed to loosen up and celebrate like Pete would have wanted me to."

She felt him vibrate with silent laughter beneath her arms. "Pete your boyfriend?" he asked.

Gwen felt tears prick her eyes. Usually, she didn't cry when talking about him anymore. The alcohol must really be affecting her for them to be springing to life so easily. Her voice wavering only a little, she said, "_Best _friend." Quickly, she followed with the correction, "Was, I mean. He's dead now."

She felt one of Aaron's hands wrap around her forearm and give it a comforting squeeze. "Aw, shit. Kid…"

In return, Gwen tightened her grip on him. "It's okay," she reassured the man, "I have MJ and the rest of the band and Miles. I'm not alone."

Aaron was quiet as he turned a corner. "It's not, but it's good you got some people."

Gwen groaned. That'd been one too many sharp moves. Her stomach was flipping like crazy. Unwrapping an arm from around Aaron, she pushed her fingers beneath the helmet and began to lift it as he shouted, "Hey, pull over. I'm gonna hurl!"

"Shit!" he cursed as he made a series of sudden moves to get them onto the side of the road. Perhaps some of them illegal, given how many people were honking. Gwen might have cared any other time, but right now, she was just glad he was so fast. Yanking off the helmet, she turned her head and threw up into a gutter for what felt like ages. When she was done, she wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her jean jacket.

Guilty, she then looked to Aaron and apologized. "Ugh, sorry."

He patted her back and smiled. "Nah, I knew it might happen."

She looked around. She recognized the area. Not well, but she'd fought crime here a few times over the last year. "Are we far from your place?" she asked as she pulled the helmet back on.

He shook his head. "Only a couple more blocks."

Aaron then started to position his bike to take off back into the street, but Gwen grabbed onto one of his arms as a thought came to her. "Hey, hang on, I should text MJ and tell her I'm with you so when she gets tired of the frat boy she's making out with, she knows I haven't been kidnapped again."

He didn't so much as raise an eyebrow at the "again" bit. She wondered if Jefferson had told him that Gwen had been kidnapped with Miles. It'd probably come up, she imagined. If he hadn't, Miles sure had told him by now. As she finished and shot off her text, he asked, "Her and your other friends gonna be fine making their way home or should I start planning to call them a cab?"

As she tucked her phone back in the pocket of her jean jacket, she gave him a closed-lip smile. "They're good, MJ's older cousin only lives a block from the place. They'll walk over and she'll let them sleep on the floor in her living room."

His full, expressive lips broadened with a smirk. "Were you trying to walk there when you got lost?"

Gwen averted her gaze, embarrassed. "…Yeah," she answered all the same. There was no point trying to lie, was there? He'd be able to tell easily enough given she was far from her best and silence would be an answer in itself.

"Are you sure the same won't happen to them?"

She shook her head. "No, MJ and the girls have done this _tons _ of times."

His eyes were bright with amusement as he said, "Not you, though, huh?"

Gwen shrugged. "I've always said no."

"Too bad you couldn't keep up that streak," he replied before turning his attention to the road.

"Mm," Gwen muttered.

"Let's go," he said, pulling them back onto the street once again.

-O-

"This is my crib," Aaron said upon opening the door to his apartment.

Gwen stepped in and felt mildly impressed. It was definitely a bachelor's pad, but a _ cool _bachelor's pad. There weren't dishes stacked in the kitchen sink or a ratty couch in the attached living room, instead, there was a nice array of cooking pots and pans hung above the stove and an awesome surround-sound in the living room. Aaron brushed past her and pointed over at his sofa. "Here's the couch," he said, walking just past it and into the hallway behind his living room. He opened first one door in the hallway and reached inside whatever room it lead to. "Here's a blanket," he told her, pulling it out and tossing it at Gwen, who just barely caught thanks to her impaired motor skills. He then walked across the hallway and opened another door. "This is the bathroom." Aaron walked out of the hall into the kitchen where he reached into a cupboard above his kitchen sink. He pulled out a large glass bowl and returned to the living room where he set it down on the coffee table in front of the couch. "This is a bowl for in case you feel sick again and don't think you'll make it to the toilet."

"Thanks, Aaron," she replied, walking over to stand beside him.

"Uh-huh."

Gwen huffed. "No, really," she insisted.

Aaron rolled his eyes at her. "Lemme make one thing clear to you, _ this _ain't happening. You tell your friends that too." He jabbed a finger in her face. "I don't need your dad after me for letting his drunk, teenage daughter stay at my place."

She looked away, realizing for the first time just how tight a spot she had put Aaron in. She was lucky he'd come at all, wasn't she? He could have just hung up on her when he realized who she was. "Yeah, okay," Gwen agreed. "Sorry about all of this."

He put a hand on the back of his neck and sighed. "No, don't be. It's better you called somebody for help. Cute kids shouldn't be wandering the streets drunk, that's a disaster in the making." He smiled at her. "I'm just relieved I was around to help." He then put a hand on her shoulder and said, eyes kind, "Get some sleep. You'll need to be outta here early. I got business tomorrow."

Heeding his suggestion, Gwen slipped out of her heels and sat down on his couch. "Maybe you should cancel, like, forever," she suggested while fanning out the blanket over herself.

He snorted, apparently amused. "Yeah, okay. You're trippin'. How'd I pay the bills then?"

"Write a book? License your name?" she said, hiding her smirk behind the blanket as she turned over onto her side. Gwen knew exactly what she was saying, even if Aaron didn't. It was actually kind of fun. Later, she could chalk it all up to drunk ramblings, but, really, she was throwing ideas at him to see how they might stick.

He eyed her partly entertained, partly concerned. "You _sure _all you did was drink? No one slipped you anything, did they?"

"No!" she grumbled.

He put up his hands and backed away. "Aight, aight," he said. "Go on to sleep. I'll wake you in the morning."

She yawned and closed her eyes. "Night, Aaron."

"G'night, Gwen."

* * *

**How'd you enjoy Aaron coming to the rescue? Gwen and him together?**

**Thank you very much for reading!**


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